So I haven't posted in 5 months. My, how life has changed!!! I had my first child! I wish I could write everything, but that would take days and days of typing, and all I have is nap time. So I will summarize as best I can:

To give you an idea of how I felt after the amazing, perfect birth of my precious child, here is an excerpt from my journal, written just a day after I got home from the hospital:

I am the happiest person in the entire world! It doesn't get any better than this. I gave birth to my son, Thomas Preston Warren, at 7:12 pm on Tuesday, Feb. 9 2010. It was the best day of my life! It was the longest day of my life. As I write this, my sweet husband is sleeping next to me on the bed with my son asleep on his chest, skin to skin, with a little white blanket with little blue elephants on top of both of them. Luna is asleep on the floor right next to them. I have a family. A perfect, wonderful family. I look at my baby and I feel like I could burst into a thousand pieces. I try to pray and thank God, but I don't have the words to express my gratitude. There aren't' any words big and beautiful enough to describe my blessings, and I don't know what I have done to deserve this. God help me! I could DIE of happiness! I get to keep him. He's mine.

I think I had the opposite of post-pardum depression. I had post-pardum euphoria. And it hasn't worn off yet. These 5 months have been incredible. Here are a few of my favorite pictures since day one:

Going home!

Daddy's favorite.

Perfect

2 weeks old

about 3 weeks old

1 month old

2 months

Under his "circus"

Easter

3 months

Cutie Man!

Dr. Gil baptizing him

Bath time!

He loves that baby in the mirror...

4 and a half months.... and standing in his crib (I'm in trouble)

Almost 5 months and sitting by himself

First vacation to the lake in Michigan!

Isn't he beautiful?

I am learning how truly impatient I can be... I am about 38 weeks pregnant. This picture was taken almost two weeks ago. I've discovered that time passes by at a snail's pace when you are this pregnant. It seems that all of the other pregnant girls that I was growing along with have given birth and have left me behind... It's like I'm the lone pregnant girl who's baby will never make his appearance. I can feel him in there. He's squirming, and it feels like he's complaining about not having enough room to stretch out... I wish I could explain to him that there is SO much room out here, and that he should just come out and enjoy it.

No one really wants to talk to me right now, and I don't blame them. All I do is complain that the baby hasn't come yet, which is ridiculous because I still have 15 days until my due date. He could be in there for weeks. That thought makes me want to cry (which is another thing that I have no control over lately). I cry over everything these days.

I have also learned that people claim to have lots of "tricks" to make labor begin. Peyton and I have learned first-hand that none of them work. They baby will come when he's supposed to come. We have done everything suggested, including eating gross eggplant, walking, bouncing on an exercise ball, having absurd pregnant sex, massaging certain pressure points, super spicy food, praying, begging, crying.... I finally just plopped on the couch tonight with a big chocolate bar and decided to just let my body be. I have worn myself out trying to make this baby come!

I did pack a bag today. I have superstitiously be putting off that chore in fear that it would jinx me. But the baby will come. Every day that goes by makes the next day more probable. He can't stay in there forever. And if he tries, the doctor will simply take him out.

Yesterday I went car shopping with Peyton. I learned several things about cars, salesmen, my husband and myself through this experience. No, we didn't buy anything yet. First of all, I learned that there is almost no way to get a backward-facing car seat into the back my current 2-door BMW. I've been driving this 2000 328ci for 5 years now, and I've always loved it. It still drives like a dream (although it doesn't quite look like a dream, see previous posts). I tried to shove that car seat back there many different ways. The only way to get it back there is to turn it upside-down and diagonal to the left. That's not going to work if there's a sleeping baby in there. It's also a two handed shove job, but I don't think I can just lay a baby on top of the car or on the ground while I try to shove his seat in the car... So this is why I'm getting a new one.

Peyton has tried to talk me in to SUV's, but I just love driving a car. I particularly love driving BMW's, so we went out searching for the larger 5-sieries. While stopping at dealers, I learned that car salesmen are the nicest guys you'll ever meet. Man, are they nice... They also seem to be in love with every car you are looking at. They say things like, "Wow, I could sit in this car all day!" or "Holy cow! Look at all the space back here! I could just stretch out and take a nap!"

I learned that buying a car brings out the Scrooge in me and the 16-year-old, speed-loving rich kid in my husband... The faster the car and the bigger the engine, the more excited my husband got. His ears also perked up at phrases like, "sports package" and "turbo" and "loaded." Meanwhile I was getting nervous about spending money and getting more than I needed. We were looking at used cars, but BMW's still come with quite a price tag.

About half way through the day, I learned that there is another car that I find quite pretty. An Infinity. They are beautiful, curvy, and the M's are a bit larger than a 5-series BMW. I decided to give one a test drive. Pretty nice! Not a BMW, but comparable, still. They cost a little less too. We were looking at M35's, but then Peyton found out that there is an M45... of course he wants me to get that one instead. We've got some more research to do. I'm taking what I've learned and applying it to our next shopping trip. We'll see what we end up with. I'm hoping to make a decision within the next two weeks.